Dioxin exposure incidents
- In 1949, in a herbicide production plant for 2,4,5-T in Nitro, West Virginia, 240 people were affected when a relief valve opened.[45]
- In 1963, a dioxin cloud escapes after an explosion in a Philips-Duphar plant (now Solvay Group) near Amsterdam.[2] In the 1960s, Philips-Duphar produced 2250 tonnes of ‘Agent Orange‘ for the US Army[citation needed].
- Between 1965 and 1968 production of 2,4,5-trichlorophenol in Spolana Neratovice plant in Czechoslovakia seriously poisoned about 60 workers with dioxins; after 3 years of investigation of reasons of health problems of workers Spolana stopped manufacture of 2,4,5-T (most of which was supplied to the US military in Vietnam). Several buildings of the Spolana chemical plant were heavily contaminated by dioxins.[46] Unclear amount of dioxins were flushed into the Elbe and Mulde rivers during the 2002 European flood, contaminating the soils.[47] Analysis of eggs and ducks find 15-time higher level of dioxins then EU limit and high concentrations of dioxin-like PCBs in village Libiš. [48] In 2004 published State Health Authority study, which analysed the level of toxic substances in human blood near Spolana. According to study is dioxin level in blood in Neratovice, Libiš and Tišice about twice the level of those from the control group in Benesov. Quantity of dioxin chemicals near Spolana is significantly higher then background level in another countries eg. USA, Japan or Spain. According to the U.S.EPA even the background level can cause the risk of cancer 1:1000 up to 1: 10000, i.e. about 100x higher than what is considered as a risk acceptable in the society. [49] The consumption of local fish, eggs, poultry and some produce was prohibited because of the post-flood contamination[citation needed].
- In 1976, large amounts of dioxins were released in an industrial accident at Seveso, although no immediate human fatalities or birth defects occurred.[50][51][52]
- In 1978, dioxins were some of the contaminants that forced the evacuation of the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York. Dioxins also caused the 1983 evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri.
- From 1982 through to 1985, Times Beach, Missouri, was bought out and evacuated under order of the United States Environmental Protection Agency due to high levels of dioxins in the soil.[53] The town eventually disincorporated.[54]
- In December 1991, an electrical explosion caused dioxins (created from the oxidation of polychlorinated biphenyl) to spread through four residence halls and two other buildings on the college campus of SUNY New Paltz.
- In May 1999, there was a dioxin crisis in Belgium: quantities of dioxins had entered the food chain through contaminated animal feed. 7,000,000 chickens and 60,000 pigs had to be slaughtered. This scandal was followed by a landslide change in government in the elections one month later.
- Explosions resulting from the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001 released massive amounts of dust into the air. The air was measured for dioxins from September 23, 2001, to November 21, 2001, and reported to be “likely the highest ambient concentration that have ever been reported.” [in history]. The United States Environmental Protection Agency report dated October 2002 and released in December 2002 titled “Exposure and Human Health Evaluation of Airborne Pollution from the World Trade Center Disaster” authored by the EPA Office of Research and Development in Washington states that dioxin levels recorded at a monitoring station on Park Row near City Hall Park in New York between October 12 and 29, 2001, averaged 5.6 parts per trillion, or nearly six times the highest dioxin level ever recorded in the U.S. Dioxin levels in the rubble of the World Trade Centers were much higher with concentrations ranging from 10 to 170 parts per trillion. The report did no measuring of the toxicity of indoor air.
- In a 2001 case study [20], physicians reported clinical changes in a 30 year old woman who had been exposed to a massive dosage (144,000 pg/g blood fat) of dioxin equal to 16,000 times the normal body level; the highest dose of dioxin ever recorded in a human. She suffered from chloracne, nausea, vomiting, epigastric pain, loss of appetite, leukocytosis, anemia, amenorrhoea and thrombocytopenia. However, other notable laboratory tests, such as immune function tests, were relatively normal. The same study also covered a second subject who had received a dosage equivalent to 2,900 times the normal level, who apparently suffered no notable negative effects other than chloracne. These patients were provided with olestra to accelerate dioxin elimination [55].
- In 2004, a notable individual case of dioxin poisoning, Ukrainian politician Viktor Yushchenko was exposed to the second-largest measured dose of dioxins, according to the reports of the physicians responsible for diagnosing him. This is the first known case of a single high dose of TCDD dioxin poisoning, and was diagnosed only after a toxicologist recognized the symptoms of chloracne while viewing television news coverage of his condition.[9]
Viktor Yushchenko with acne after his PCDD poisoning incident
- In the early 2000s, residents of the city of New Plymouth, New Zealand, report many illnesses of people living around and working at the Dow Chemical plant. This plant ceased production of 2,4,5-T in 1987.
- DuPont has been sued by 1,995 people who claim dioxin emissions from DuPont’s plant in DeLisle, Mississippi, caused their cancers, illnesses or loved one’s death, of these only 850 are pending as of June 2008. In August 2005, Glen Strong, an oyster fisherman with the rare blood cancer multiple myeloma, was awarded $14 million from DuPont – this ruling was overturned June 5, 2008 by a Mississippi jury who found DuPont’s plant had no connection to Mr. Strong’s disease.[56] In another case, parents claim dioxin from pollution caused the death of their 8 year old daughter; the trial took place in the summer of 2007, and a jury wholly rejected the family’s claims as no scientific connection could be proven between DuPont and the family’s tragic loss.[57] DuPont’s DeLisle plant is one of three titanium dioxide facilities (including Edgemoor, DE, and New Johnsonville, TN) that are the largest producers of dioxin in the country, according to the US EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory. DuPont maintains its operations are safe and environmentally responsible.
- In 2007 in Italy thousands of tonnes of foul-smelling refuse are piled up in Naples and its surrounding villages, defacing entire neighbourhoods. Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins are found in animals and humans over lethal dose[58].Sources of Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins was identified in refuse and pvc combustion and industrial refuse disposal in uncontrolled industrial waste disposal. In numbers animals and humans was found lethal dose.
- In December 2008 in Ireland dioxin levels in Pork were disclosed to have been between 80 and 200 times the legal limit. All Irish pork products were withdrawn from sale both nationally and internationally. For more see Irish pork crisis of 2008
- According to the last available data[59], in 2005 the production of dioxin by the steel industry ILVA in Taranto (Italy) accounted for 90.3 per cent of the overall Italian emissions, and 8.8 per cent of the European emissions.